Funding is requested to support construction of a new state-of-the-art vivarium at UC Santa Cruz, which will support NIH-funded research involving vertebrate animals. The new vivarium will replace a 25-year old facility that lacks critical features necessary for modern biomedical research in vertebrate systems. The new vivarium will occupy 13,100 of assignable square feet in a new interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences Building. Plans for this building were completed in 2008;however, critical features were removed from the original plans due to state funding limitations. This resulted in the decision to leave 1,900 assignable square feet of the vivarium as shelled space for future completion when additional funding became available, as well as to omit key pieces of fixed equipment. We are, therefore, requesting NIH funding for conversion of open "shell" space to individual procedure rooms and animal holding rooms, installation of building infrastructure to support facility equipment, associated equipment for the vivarium, and upgrading of the building security to protect animals and personnel. Funding of this proposal will allow completion of the full vivarium facilities as initially planned, providing critically needed space and equipment for the use of current faculty members studying neural development, stem cell biology, comparative genomics, regulation of gene expression, cancer, and infectious disease. Moreover, completion of the vivarium will allow the campus to hire up to 12 additional faculty members doing research in vertebrate systems. Construction of the Biomedical Sciences Building will begin in Summer of 2009, with the building construction phase that includes the vivarium beginning in Summer of 2010, consistent with the availability of funding from this grant.